African American women, in the course of seeking executive positions in organizations dominated by whites, often face restrictions. They always face discrimination based on their racial and gender statuses. Cain (2015), states in her research that women made up only 16% of the executive positions in corporate organizations in the United States in 2014. In that same year, only 5.3% of these positions had Black American women. This is a concern. Even though recently the number of women in these positions is rising, White people and men, in particular, continue to take this position. This issue is present in most organizations’ leadership.
My concern, however, is not just any organization but educational leadership in particular. White people continue to occupy the top positions in educational institutions especially those institutions dominated by a White population. Black people, in particular women, rarely hold such positions in these kinds of schools. Therefore, the question to ask is what are they doing or what are they not doing? Why is it that the number of Black women in higher positions in colleges is still low? Moreover, are there strategies we can put in place to bring about a difference in this situation?
It is true that African American women face discrimination because of their racial and gender status. However, this might not be the only reason why there exists a small number when it comes to positions in educational leadership. Most of the Black American women lack the necessary skills to occupy these positions, that is, higher educational leadership especially in schools where the Whites are the majority. Therefore, the institution’s board finds them ineligible to occupy such executive positions since they lack the necessary training required of them. Most of these women, however, lack this skill since they could not access the resources needed for their training. Most of the African Americans come from middle or low economic backgrounds thus many do not afford to pay for training for these positions (Genao, 2016). Concerning this, they do not qualify to occupy these positions. Nonetheless, in line with this, I would propose the subsidization of the training programs for such people to a price they can afford. Through this, they would gain the essential skills to occupy top positions in educational leadership in higher institutions.